Find Your Fitness Motivation

Everyone is tempted to hit the snooze button instead of getting ready for the day. It’s even easier to give in when a morning workout is involved. Memories of heavy breathing, tense muscles and sweat would inspire most people to catch up on some Z’s instead.

I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to think about the hard work that it takes to push you beyond your capabilities only to think it would be much easier to just veg out in front of the TV watching the latest episode of The Bachelor.

Let’s face it: sometimes we get lazy.

When you have a choice between lying on the couch or doing twenty push-ups, which option sounds more inviting? Many people would opt for resting their muscles, but some people will jump right into moving their bodies. What makes those people different from the couch potatoes? One single word:

Motivation.

A simple concept, motivation is the key behind overhauling unhealthy habits and reaching various fitness goals. And yet it is one of the most difficult ideas to practice—particularly when it involves getting off the couch and out of the house.

The concept has been preached throughout the history of personal training, and it has been idealized by sports coaches and physical education teachers. (Believe it or not, your P.E. teacher wasn’t just trying to torture you. Unless you were my high school weightlifting teacher, Mr. Hisamoto. Then he was just trying to kill you!)

However, thinking about becoming motivated won’t accomplish a thing. You don’t get a free pass for thinking about working out when the working out never happens.

You can always try to get in a personal training session.

You can always try to find the time after work.

You can always try to resist the urge to sleep in.

But the only true way to be motivated is to do, not try.

Think of it this way; Shaun White wasn’t born a snowboarding Olympic gold medalist. In fact, he was born with a congenital heart defect that led to two open heart surgeries. And yet, before his 18th birthday, White was already training at his local skate park and catching the eyes of people like Tony Hawk. Within a few years, White ended up training enough to beat the highest score for the men’s halfpipe at the Winter Olympics.

If anyone has lifelong motivation, it’s White. He didn’t become legendary by sitting on the couch, thinking about snowboarding. He went out and did it.

So where do you rate?

After all, as the German novelist Jean Paul said: “No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.”

If that is too deep for you, then in the immortal words of the Jedi Master, Yoda, “Do or do not. There is no try.”